The conventional way of laying out wall studs, floor joists, roof rafters, trusses and rough door layout is time consuming and physically tiring and is not as accurate as using the apparatus of the present invention. The framing carpenter marks on a structural building member where the sides of all the interconnecting structural building materials are going to be placed using a tape measure. For 11/2" wide wall studs, joists, rafters or trusses, the carpenter hooks the tape measure on the end of the wall plates or sill plate, he/she must deduct 3/4" (1/2 the width of the material) at all center marks, on the tape measure and marks the wall plates, at standard engineered building centers, such as 151/4", 311/4", 471/4", etc. This is very eye straining and mistakes frequently happen in this process.
The other way of marking engineered building centers on a structural building member is to measure 151/4" along the length of the structural building member from the end of the plate and mark this point, then hammer a nail at that mark and bend it over perpendicular to the plates. The worker then hooks the end of the tape to the bent nail and pulls the tape out as the worker marks the engineered building centers and also make a "X" mark on both wall plates or sill plate on the side of the mark in the direction that the worker is going. After marking 20' of centers the carpenter tends to pull the tape measure and sometimes the nail will swivel and the centers are then wrong if he keeps marking to 30'. Then at 30' a nail is needed again at the last mark made. Layouts with tape measures are limited to the length of the tape measure before the nail system is needed. When all the centers are marked the carpenter must start at the beginning with a square and make square lines across the two plates or sill plate at all center marks made using the measurement process described above. These lines are where the side of the stud will be placed, on the "X" side.
Marking for joists and rafters is similar as the studs but marking for the plywood joist and rafters is more difficult because of the widths, 13/4" and 2 5/16" and the centers of 19.2" for these materials.
For rough door layout, the carpenter marks for a stud side, measures 11/2" and marks, measures 11/2" for door trimmer and marks and writes an "S" for the stud and a "T" for the trimmer. From that door trimmer edge, the carpenter measures the door size plus 2" for the jambs and shim spaces, then measures 11/2" for the trimmer and marks and 11/2" for the stud and marks, then writes the "T" and "X"s. The worker then uses a carpenter's square to mark perpendicular lines across the plates at the marks made using the tape measure to determine the proper engineered building centers. There are times when the carpenter forgets the 2" space or the individual does not know about the 2" space required for a door opening. This mistake, if not caught soon, can cost loss of time and expense as the building progresses. The present invention saves time, much bending and is accurate with no limit in layout length. There is no error of reading the tape measure or the person knowing dimensions or having to compute fractions of material sizes, such as one half of 11/2", 13/4" or 2 5/16" and rough door size.